


Revenge and Setting Up Your Best Friend

by Algorithm_of_Dreams



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Amortentia, But mostly fluff, Enemies to Friends, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Pen Pals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:47:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27852810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Algorithm_of_Dreams/pseuds/Algorithm_of_Dreams
Summary: Hermione brews amortentia to get back at Ron for the Lavender debacle. It doesn't work but an unlikely friendship begins.(Draco Malfoy is an idiot)
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 2
Kudos: 66





	Revenge and Setting Up Your Best Friend

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off of a post I read which basically is just this storyline. It was ages ago and I couldn't find it again but credit to the creator of that post.
> 
> This was written ages ago so be kind. Unbetad.
> 
> Enjoy!

“Oh Harry! I can’t believe Ron!”

Harry sighed. His potions essay, due in the next class, was still unfinished. “No?”

“No I can’t!”

“Hermione!” He dropped his quill and stared at her. “We’re still on about this?”

“Yes.” She said tersely. “But I suppose being his best friend you wholly support him?”

“No it’s not like that!”

“Oh yes it is. How does it go with you two? Oh, I bet you both complain to each other in your shared free periods! ‘Oh Ron, I wish Hermione would just leave me alone!’, ‘Yeah. She’s completely mental.’ I get it! Have fun with your essay!” She stalked across the common room and pushed through the portrait hole.

“Hermione!” Harry picked up the tails of his essay once more. What was wrong with her?

_I need a place to brew a secret potion. I need a place to brew a secret potion. I need a place to brew a secret potion._

Hermione stopped walking and opened her eyes. There it was, the door to the room of requirement in the door that was before completely bare. She stepped inside. There was a large cauldron in the centre of the room and shelves and shelves of bottles and ingredients around the walls. _Perfect_.

There was a book of potions on a table by the cauldron and on the first page was Amortentia. The love potion that smelled different to everyone, that smelled of the thing they loved most. The potion to get back at Ron.

It would take a week’s work but Hermione was fine with that. She didn’t have much homework yet this term.

She stewed over Lavender in increasing annoyance just as the potion stewed in the cauldron. All the ingredients she needed were here and it wasn’t too complicated. Just time consuming. It would give her time away from the boys anyway. Harry was getting to her nearly as much as Ron now.

A few days passed, Hermione going to the room of requirement every evening and free period to check on the potion. By Thursday, it was well on the way to completion. Ron never spoke to her now, except for the random snide comment worthy of Malfoy but Harry had made up with her again. She spent all the time she wasn’t doing homework or working on the Amortentia with him. Hermione was glad they were friends again, even if he had the occasional tendency to side with Ron.

On Saturday the potion would be done and she could taste the revenge on her lips.

Saturday rolled around slower than usual. The homework load had increased and she had less time for the Amortentia. That wasn’t all bad as the potion did not need as much maintenance now but she would have preferred to be able to keep a more constant eye on it. That morning, she entered the room of requirement to administer the final ingredient to the potion: two drops of burlap sap. After which the potion would be ready in a few minutes. Once finished she bottled up the entire thing and sprayed some on her neck and hands. She was a weapon to destroy Ron now.

Walking down the corridor Hermione met Cormac McLaggen. She been on a date with him once but only to annoy Ron. He knew full well that it was over.

“Hello, Hermione.” He sidled up beside her. “Isn’t it a pretty day. Fancy a walk around the lake.” The Amortentia must be acting on him. If it worked on McLaggen, she had Ron in the bag.

“Sorry, Cormac. I can’t. My _boyfriend_ would get suspicious.”

“Boyfriend? Oh, I’m sorry.”

She marched off, head high. This would be fun.

Over the next two weeks it got horribly annoying. Students everywhere would try to drop hints at their love for her or ask her on dates but Ron was not among them. He never got close enough anymore to smell the potion on her. She was so angry at him. She had tried walking as close to him as possible without being suspected. She would pass near his seat in the Great Hall or take longer routes to the girls dormitory so she could walk near the chair he was sitting in but still nothing. It made her want to punch something.

***

I had noticed something different about Granger lately. Students would crowd around her in the corridors and at the library. What was going on with her? He’d even seen some Slytherins in the throng around her.

That morning there was a particularly large group at the Griffindor breakfast table. In the centre of which was Granger, with a haughty expression on her face. My curiosity got the better of me.

As I approached I noticed that every so often someone would leave looking abashed but more people came to replace them. It was odd.

“Hey Granger!” I called. She looked up, annoyed.

“What Malfoy?”

I pushed closer and I caught a familiar but wild and powerful scent. “You’ve gathered yourself a crowd. I didn’t know wearing Potter-purfume made you so popular.”

She balked and gave me a calculating look. “Entrance Hall. Now.”

“What?” I gaped after her as she battled through the pulsing and struggling students. “Granger! Wait!”

I forced my way after her, shoving aside the other students and overtaking the few who had even gone so far as to follow her. This day was getting madder and madder. A popular Granger, a Granger smelling like Potter, a Granger meeting him alone in the Entrance Hall.

“What?” I repeated when I was safely through the high and elaborate doors and halfway down the marble stairs. The clatter of plates and loud chatter drifted through around me.

She cracked a smile. “I —” and she burst out laughing.

“ _Merlin’s Beard,_ Granger!”

“Sorry!” She gasped, “so sorry!” Her shoulders and bushy hair shook with silent hysterical giggles.

“Just speak, woman, or I’m going right back to my breakfast!”

“Sorry!” She said again but she seemed to have quelled most of her laughter. “It’s just — I wouldn’t have guessed it.”

“You are making less and less sense.”

“I — you — Harry. I’m wearing Amortentia. Malfoy, Amortentia.”

“Wha —” I gaped. Realisation hit me like a slap on the face. “ _Shit_.” I could feel the tips of my ears growing warm. I began to pace. “Oh. No. Oh shit _no_.”

“It’s okay. I won’t tell him.”

I stopped and stared at her. “It’s bad enough that you know.”

“Honestly!” She glared at me and began to say something like _just as bad as Ron._ She stopped herself and instead asked. “Why? What would I do with that information?”

“Why would I know? You’ve probably got some smart-ass scheme just waiting. You can’t do it. My father —”

“ _Your father_ what? What would you tell him? That You’ve got a crush on Harry Potter? That Hermione Granger found out? That Hermione Granger was brewing Amortentia? That to you it smells like the arch enemy of your father’s master? Even if you did, what would he do? He has no power anymore.”

I was frozen still. “I —”

She was watching me, waiting, judging. It was a test I was sure I’d fail. It was all in her eyes.

“Amortentia is against school rules. I could get you expelled.”

“You could” She said very slowly, “but Harry Potter is my best friend.”

I gave her a foul look. “It’s not worth it, Granger. He’s not going to smell it.” I strode away and up the marble staircase again.

The next day, my eagle-owl landed on the table before me, spraying cornflakes over the people nearby. She held a scroll. This was not unusual, I always got letters from my mother but when I detached it and turned it over, it was not my mother’s large, loopy and elegant hand, bred from a long line of wealth, that had scribed:

_To Draco Malfoy_

but a cramped but neat scrawl. I unrolled it and pinned it open with the sugar bowl.

_Malfoy,_

_I do hope that yesterday’s encounter has not bred any bad feelings. Can we come to the agreement that if you don’t tell anyone about me brewing banned potions, I will not tell Harry or anyone else? I am truly sorry about what I said about your father. It was uncalled for and a very low blow. I’m sorry._

_Hermione._

I scoffed and turned over the parchment before Crabbe or Goyle could see. I took a quill from my bag and quickly scratched out a reply just below her _to Draco Malfoy_. I tried to make it cold and uncaring. I didn’t want her sending me letters. That was down right weird but then it was also a good way to get closer to Har — let’s just say I did not try very hard.

_Ifully agree to that but I don’t want to hear about this, any of this, again. I can’t be seen sending letters to someone like you._

_Malfoy_

I attached the scroll back onto Scorpius’ leg and murmured so only she could hear. “To Granger.”

I waited for it to take flight before getting up and swaggering out. I hoped I’d never get a response.

It was three days since that morning and no word from Granger. I was triumphant. I had managed to sweep the situation under the rug and would soon be able to forget about it with no danger of anything being disclosed. I was so relieved, I even missed an opportunity to jeer and mime when Longbottom forgot his potions book and fell up the stairs in his haste to the Griffindor common room.

That night in the common room, Blaise and Pansy were debating the worst blood traitors and their crimes and sins. I was distracted. I had been for ages, since the Dark Lord had given me my orders and now with Potter on top of it all. It wasn’t working. I had tried to curse the Headmaster with the necklace then when that failed, poison him with the mead but that was foiled also. To be honest, I could have tried harder but I was scared. I was so terrified. He’d said he’d kill me and my whole family if I didn’t but Dumbledore was the greatest wizard alive. Wasn’t he? He could kill me too but more than that. He was a man. A living, breathing man. I would have to make him a corpse. I would have to take away his everything and leave him as a broken body. I would have to take him away from everyone who cared about him. I would have to rob the entire wizarding world of him. He was a beacon of hope and I had to put him out.

“Draco.” Blaise’s voice of thick timbre and deep resonance broke through the downward spiral of death and loss and pain, to me. “Draco, your owl.”

I looked up from my hands. Scorpius had flown down through one of the vents and shafts that let in the only sunlight into the dungeon common room. All of the common room windows looked into the dark depths of the lake where we would see the giant squid and other mysterious creatures drifting lazily by. I personally preferred the dorms where the windows out into the air, just inches from the water.

She pecked my hand until I released her from the thick scroll, then flew away without hesitation. I wondered what had got her feathers in a knot. I hoped I wouldn’t have to reply this evening; Scorpius was not in the mood for cooperation.

I rotated the scroll until I fond words scribed on it. They were in Granger’s hand, exactly as before.

“Oh Merlin.” I sighed and got up to head to the sixth year boy’s dorm.

“What is it, Draco?” Pansy squealed. I ignored her and hurried up the stairs, two at a time. “Draco!”

_Draco Malfoy,_

_How have you been since the last time we spoke? I have to say, I was a little offended by your last message and I do hope you’ve changed your tone. I’m not keen to be in transaction with someone who will spite me at every turn. I think now it would be pleasant if you called me Hermione and we treated each other like friends and not as though we blackmailed each other into this situation._

_I just wanted you to know that if you ever, ever want to talk about Harry, or anything concerning him, I am happy to listen and help out. I can only imagine how hard this is for you with your family and all. I’m sorry if I have been to forward here but I just want you to know you have my full support if you need it._

_I wanted to know, if you had any advice as to get revenge on someone or at least get them to feel remorse. I would kind of like to make them jealous. If you can help me please do. I’m desperate. I regret to say that you were right; it hasn’t worked and I sadly don’t think it will._

_Hermione._

I stared at the letter for a long time after reading it. She was overstepping a line I so clearly laid out in bright, obnoxious paint and I wasn’t sure how to react. Who did she think she was? I pulled out parchment from my bag and began to write back.

_Granger,_

_I was well until Scorpius brought me your letter. I told you, I did not want to hear from you again but still I get a letter from you when I am with my fellow Slytherins, enjoying a nice evening. I’m sure now that they believe that something horrible has happened to my mother or that I’ve got some lover they aught not know about with the speed at which I left for my dorm in order to conceal the sender. What in Merlin’s Beard am I going to say to them? I am sorry if all you wanted was friendship because you will not get it. We treat each other as if we blackmailed each other into this arrangement because we did. I’m not going to act like I enjoy the situation and personally I believe that the more distance between us the better._

_As for spilling my deepest, darkest feelings about Potter and my family to you, it will never happen. The very proposition disgusts me. You know enough of my secrets and I will not feed you any more. I have enough support from the ignorant but worthy to need it from a mudblood who knows a little but thinks they know it all. You could never understand the situation I’m in and I’m never going to let you try._

_Weasley is a lost cause and honestly it’s a battle I’d rather not win if I were you. You are far better off without him._

_Please, for the last time, don’t write again._

_Malfoy_

Hopefully, that did the trick.

***

The pompous bastard had thrown off all my assistance once again. Of course he could never believe a _mudblood_ capable of anything but mopping floors. Why was I being so stupid? I wanted so badly for a _good_ answer to that burning question but the only one I had was so far from ‘good’. All I knew was that I was angry at Ron, I wanted Harry to stop proclaiming all Slytherins death eaters and more than anything I wanted to have someone to talk to. Someone who understood how it felt to love someone that didn’t love you back. I was ashamed of it.

What I was even more ashamed of was that I had cried when I got his letter back. When I saw when he had called me and how each sentence seemed harsher and ruder than the last. When I saw that some people thought that badly of me.

I had been at breakfast. The post owls had come and with them, Malfoy’s letter. Harry had been shocked when he saw me crying. He had wanted to know what upset me; he had wanted someone to blame. Unable to explain for the vows I had made to Malfoy, I ran out of the Great Hall and into the grounds. So many eyes had watched me and then Harry sprinting after me. What must they have thought?

He’d found me under the beech by the lake. It was pretty here but it held many memories of other fights or times of high tension within our group. It was, in a way, the outcast’s haven as much as it was the group retreat.

“Hermione.” He panted. “Please, what’s wrong.”

“I can’t tell you.” I stammered. He moved closed and engaged the full force of his green eyes on me. It was the kind of look that was hard to refuse and he knew it.

“Something is wrong, Hermione, and I want to fix it for you.”

“There are some things you can’t fix. You have to wait for someone else to do it for you or for it to do it itself.”

He sighed and draped and arm around my shoulder. “Fine, don’t tell me but that won’t stop me trying to make it better.” He pulled me close. “You matter to me Hermione.”

This was why he was my best friend.

“You matter to Ron too. He’s just too stubborn to admit it.”

I pulled away and glared at him. This was why he would never have any other friends. He was completely tactless.

***

It was two weeks since my last letter to Granger. When she got it she cried. I felt bad about that for a while but I tried and succeeded to push it out. She was an unimportant muggle born.

Potter on the other hand was a factor I could not eliminate. Every time I saw him, he seemed twice as perfect and attractive as before. His green eyes and his tousled, raven black hair. The glittering quidditch captain badge on his lapel and the way his crumpled white shirt fell over his body. The absurdly cute glasses and the fierce scar on his forehead. He was pretty and talented and hot all jumbled together. He was perfect even when he was rumpled and tired or stressed and angry. Even when I knew he hated my guts.

Every time I spotted him my gut twisted and every time someone treated him like the dirt on their shoes I got angry. I was struggling now to keep up the façade of hateful malice. All I could do was to avoid him as much as I could. No one I knew could be let to think I’d gone soft.

I had to do something but I was at loss as to what. There was only two options I could come up with and neither were even close to palatable. One: suck it up. Two: write to Hermione Granger.

I wrote to Hermione Granger.

_Hermione Granger,_

_I am sorry for the way I treated you last time I wrote. It was cruel and derogatory. I am sorry to note I made you cry and I feel the greatest remorse. I do hope we can start over. I am happy to treat you as a friend if that is what you still want._

_I regret calling you what I did and your support would be much appreciated if it is still on offer but if not, I will not hold it against you. You have every right not to want to talk to me or help me anymore._

_If you would like, I will offer my full, wholehearted assistance in the matter of Ron Weasley. Of course you may have already succeeded in your task and I will no longer be of any use but my offer will still stand even if it is for another matter entirely._

_Draco_

***

Scorpius, Malfoy’s eagle-owl was tapping on one of the tall windows into the common room. It was a warm Sunday morning and most people were out on the grounds. It was just myself and Harry in the common room, him finishing off a long history of magic essay and me helping him occasionally. It showed how much Ron and I had fallen out that I would as good as do Harry’s homework just to make him upset.

“Isn’t that Malfoy’s?” Harry asked, gesturing up at the owl, batting it’s wings to stay aloft and attacking the window with it’s cruel beak.

“No. No I don’t think so. Isn’t his darker and with less white on the wings?” I covered quickly. I hoped he’d buy it; it wasn’t as if he’d seen Scorpius close up. Malfoy couldn’t be the only one with an eagle-owl anyway. There were dozens of pure blood families who’d have that same dark and dangerous taste.

“Oh, you’re probably right. Don’t bother yourself I’ll get it.” He said. I’d begun to get up but I could not refuse; he’d suspect me of something. I just hoped that Malfoy hadn’t written anything but _to Hermione Granger_ on the outside.

“It’s for you.” He said, inspecting the handwriting and parchment. “Someone with a posh hand.” He handed it to me and watched carefully as I unrolled it.

It was indeed written in Malfoy’s hand but the writing on the inside was not as sharp and flustered as before. It was a calm and repenting piece that consisted of nothing but polite and needlessly formal language. I could feel my cheeks grow pink as I read and a smile creep onto my lips. I was happy and shamefully so that I had him to leach my overflowing emotions and secrets into. I sensed Harry’s eyes on me and I knew he was curious, especially with the pink dusting my cheeks and ears but he did not say anything, even as I rerolled the scroll and shoved it away in my bag. That evening I would write Draco a reply.

_Draco,_

_Thank you for your letter. You are forgiven. Now I think it is a little weird being so formal to each other. We are friends now, I think and we should act like it. I think you are right. That it make this work we need to start over so, here we go:_

_Hello, my name is Hermione Granger. I grew up an only child in a muggle family, the daughter of two dentists. When I turned eleven, I got my Hogwarts letter. I was so excited but I wasn’t really sure if I could believe it. It was just all so amazing, wonderful and fantastic. Sometimes I still find it hard to believe. So many things I would never have known about and would still be ignorant of now if I were not a witch. It never ceases to awaken new knowledge and passion in me, this thrilling world in which we live. In first year, I made friends with Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley after a fight with a cave troll in the girls bathroom. They have been my best friends ever since, despite numerous falling outs in our group we are very close. I have had many adventures with the two of them, both of whom have dragged me into things that I would never have done or experienced had I just had ‘normal’ friends. There are so many things I would not have thought myself capable of that I have done because of all the mischief and adventure that Ron and Harry dragged me through. For most of this year, myself and Ron have fought. I don’t like it when we are torn apart like this and I know how hard it is on Harry because I experienced similar in the whole situation with the Triwizard Tournament. The reason was because of Lavender Brown. I like Ron and for a while I thought he liked me back but then he got in with Lavender and it all fell apart. I brewed Amortentia to get back at Ron for all he had done and this is where you come in. You said I smelled like Harry. So of course I knew about your feelings from that but you knew about the potion. So, we entered into an agreement not to speak of it, any of it to anyone._

_Now you can tell me about you._

_I will help you with Harry to the best of my ability and thanks for the offer with Ron. I might just take you up on that._

_Hermione_

I got a reply less than a half hour after the letter was sent. There was something thrilling about this illegal interaction and friendship that was developing.

_Hermione,_

_My name is Draco Malfoy. I grew up an only child like you but in a pure blood family. I grew up in Malfoy Manner where Iwas taught by my parents and everyone I knew to despise all those who were traitorous or impure of blood. I am popular among the Slytherins of me year as well as all the others but I have never had close friends. No one that I would tell everything to. I had Crabbe and Goyle of course but they were closer to sidekicks than friends. I have no concept of this wonder you experience with the wizarding world because of course it is my life and always has been. Being brought up the way that I have I rarely experience wonderment over the creations of muggles although they are rather ingenious and inventive. So recently, I have fallen for the powers of Harry Potter and that is where you came in. The Amortentia you wore smelled of him and we blackmailed each other into an agreement. That was what it was until by the striving of your own, we became friends._

_So, Harry Potter. I don’t really know what to say only that I need to do something. It gets worse every day and I fear that someday the other Slytherins will notice something off about me. I wish I could just forget him but I can’t, I’ve tried so very hard. I can’t think of what to do because I know what my heart wants but I know that it’s not what’s good for my reputation and with my mother and father and all of his people. I can’t be gay and even worse gay for Harry Potter. What further would happen to my father and eventually me and my mother too. I’m scared, Hermione. My father has placed me and my family in a very dangerous place. I’ve said to much already. Please destroy this once you’ve read it?_

_I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do about Ron yet but I’m thinking about it, I promise._

_Draco_

***

I don’t know why I sent it. I should have destroyed it myself. What if it was intercepted? Did I actually trust Hermione that much? It could destroy the Malfoy’s yet further. We could all end up in the grave tomorrow. At least I didn’t say my job. At least I didn’t ask for help, to be let free of this.

Her response did not come until two days later. I was so terrified that it had in fact been taken, that it had never gotten to her at all or maybe it had but she was using it against me. When it came, relief flooded me.

_Draco,_

_I’m glad we know each other now. Don’t worry, it was not intercepted and I did destroy it. You should be more careful in future, though. I’m sorry I took so long in replying, I have been bogged down with school work. I have so much more to say and I don’t want to have to write it all out. It would be better if we met up and I know you don’t want to be seen with me and I don’t want that either so we need to choose sometime when everyone is busy. How about at dinner time tomorrow? We can eat quickly then meet at the statue of the hunchback witch on the second floor. No one goes through that corridor on the way to their dorms, there are far shorter ways and who is going to be going anywhere else after dinner?_

_Hermione_

***

_Hermione,_

_Good plan, see you then._

_Draco_

***

I was at the hunchback witch a few minutes before Hermione got there.

“Sorry, Seamus and Dean were having a debate and they kept asking me to make sure the other’s arguments were factually correct. I have no idea why they needed me, it was mostly common knowledge.”

“For you probably.” I sprawled against the base of the statue and shifted around until I was comfortable.

“What’s that meant to mean?”

I looked up at her from my place on the chill stone floor. “You are the most knowledgeable of us all. Don’t look at me like that. It’s true.”

“Thanks. I guess.” She lowered herself down near me and it were as if the tension was severed.

“You wanted talk?”

“Well about Harry.”

I blushed and ducked my head to hide it. She gave me a half smile then continued.

“How would you feel about meeting him.”

“What?” I stared at her unable to do anything but repeat myself but quieter. “What?”

“I know it sounds drastic and all but it’s tearing you apart and you have to do something about it. You’re hurting.”

“I can’t! My parents! The Malfoy bloodline! I don’t even know if I can accept it myself.” It was a profound thing to be undone in front of someone and show it. Usually I would hide my feelings if killed me. That was the Malfoy way. A façade of ultimate power, always.

A line formed between her eyebrows. “You have to do something, like you said. You can’t just let it rip you into a thousand little pieces.”

“I didn’t mean that.”

“What did you mean?”

“I don’t know. I —”

“It will help you and then we can work out some way of hiding it.”

“‘It will help’! No! He hates me!” I glowered at her. “Why do you want me to meet him? If it works, you’re eliminating your influence in this bargain. If it doesn’t, I am obliged by the terms of our agreement to spill your secret.”

“I know, Draco.”

“Then why—”

“Because I think we’re better than that now. We’re friends, aren’t we? We shouldn’t have to have an agreement to hold this relationship together.”

“Okay.”

“Will you do it?”

“First, stop using the Amortentia.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s not working and we don’t want to have you at my mercy do we?”

“Oh okay. Thanks. Does this mean you want to meet him.”

“I don’t want to but — but I think you’re right.” I said grudgingly. “Please don’t do anything drastic.”

“How about after he’s finished his dinner? We can go meet him then.” Hermione sounded so thrilled.

“Woah! No! That, I call drastic!” She had to be kidding, she had to be.

“You did say you thought I was right.”

“What’s right isn’t always what I want to do.”

“Don’t do what’s easy, Draco, you should do what’s right. Be brave even when it is hard or frightening. That is the way to Harry, I think.”

There was silence for a long time.

“That is so very cliché.” I said finally and she laughed.

“Perhaps but what’s your answer?” She prodded me in the arm as she asked her question.

“Okay.” I said quietly. “But if this doesn’t work, I don’t know if our friendship is strong enough to endure. Do you really want to risk that?”

“I think it can be.”

I was sitting in a niche between two arches. I felt as if my conversation with Hermione had unraveled me. She had gone to collect Harry from the Great Hall and it had already been ten minutes since she’d left. I had tried to form something impressive to say in my mind but I could never get past the fact that this was even happening at all.

He hated me.

“Draco?” Hermione had come back which meant Harry —

“Here.” It was all I could manage.

“Oh good. I was worried you’d left.”

I shrugged in reply. I had wanted to, badly.

Harry pulled Hermione close and whispered in her ear. A crease was between his elegant brows and he spoke quickly. I only caught a couple of words _“Why ... here? ... wrong with you? ... called him Draco! Why?”_

I didn’t give Hermione time to answer, I didn’t think she should have to. “I’m sorry, Potter. Don’t bother yourself, sorry for the inconvenience.” I hated myself but was relieved to have thrown off the situation.

_That is the way to Harry, I think._

I turned and walked away. He hated me. There was no point trying.

“Draco!” I kept walking. Hermione didn’t know, she couldn’t know. This wasn’t the right way. This was the way to rejection or worse death. I had to remain loyal and faithful. No falling into the hands of my enemies. Harry was my _enemy_.

“Draco! Wait!” She seized my elbow and dragged me around to face her. I pulled my arm out of her grip.

“Get off me, mudblood!”

She drew her wand. “You are just as bad as your father! Why did I think you could be any better? You coward!” She had begun to cry hot tears but her wand hand did not waver. “Fight me! Prove you’re better than all the other Malfoy filth!”

“Hermione!” Harry was running towards us. “Get away from her!” I could see the angry flash in his eyes. He shot a jinx at me that missed by inches.

He hated me.

I stepped back and held up my hands. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“You’re a coward!” He screamed and his arms wrapped around Hermione. He pulled her close to him but never let his wand fall. It aimed at my heart.

He hated me.

He had every right to hate me.

I stepped back again, keeping my hands up. “Yes. Yes, I probably am.” I couldn’t believe myself.

“What?” He hand fell a bit.

“I’m a coward and — and an underserving prat.”

The two of them just gaped.

“Hermione gave me two things I could never deserve and I treated her cruelly.”

Hermione disentangled herself from Harry and threw her arms around me. I was frozen still. Should I hug her back or —

To late, the moment was over but she beamed at me all the same.

“So, will you use the chance I’ve given you?” She asked.

I hid my face in my hands to hide the forming blush but I could feel the tips of my ears turn pink. “Do I have to?”

“I’ll leave you to it then, shall I?”

I jerked up to look at her and groaned “Hermione! Please, no!” at the same time that Harry caught her arm and asked “What? Hermione, what’s happening?”

“I’m going because he —” she gestured with the hand still clutching the wand, at me “has something he needs to say and no Draco, you can’t change that.”

“Please, Hermione!” I gasped as she strode off down the corridor.

“Draco.” She said but she said it like she’d meant to say something different and with a very final full stop.

“Merlin.” I groaned and leaned against the wall with my face once more buried in my long-fingered hands.

“Malfoy?”

I winced as he said my name. It sounded so foreign but so perfect on his lips.

“Well, I myself would like to get back to the common room so if you could —”

“I like you.” I blurted. All the words stringing together.

He tilted his head and studied me.

He hated me.

“What?” He asked.

I cringed at saying it again but his eyes were on me. I had to. “I _like_ you.”

He opened his mouth as if to say something but shut it again. Instead he gave a curt nod.

_He hated me._

Harry stepped closer, he was going to hit me but his hands only pulled me away from the wall, lacing together at the back of my neck.

I couldn’t process, he was too close.

He lent in a _kissed_ me.

He didn’t hate me.

Our bodies were so close that our heat combined. His hands were in my hair and under my shirt. His fingers were cool against my skin. His lips were pressed passionately over mine and my tongue was in his mouth. I could feel his glasses knocked askew against my face just as the cold wall pressed against my back. His hand worked at the tie around my throat —

I felt a lithe body press against my leg and I pushed Harry off me. It was all ending to quick but Mrs Norris, Filch’s cat had come.

“Draco?” Harry croaked, adjusting his round glasses.

I gestured at Mrs Norris just as she let out a resentful yowl.

“Oh. Yeah, we should go.”

He pulled me through some shortcuts I hadn’t seen before until we were two floors and many corridors past the site of our encounter with Mrs Norris.

“That cat.” Harry remarked as he sank against a high window that overlooked the grounds. He laughed. I had never heard him laugh like that before. My heart sang with it.

***

_Hermione,_

_Thank you._

_Draco._

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking of growing this story into a much longer one to cover all of Draco's struggles with the Voldemort situation and how that effects his relationship with Harry and the rest of the golden trio. And also to get the happy ending with Ron and Hermione that they deserve. Thoughts?


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